Asunto: US National Team

I would like to ask for you remain on for a year due to your experience at running the senior team and your expert thoughts on how this team can go far in world championships. We got to the first round and lost to the champions in Canada and that is a salty wound I want to make up for by winning this team especially after we won our group

This will be my gameplan for this season. While the team could have played better vs Canada I am happy with our boys performance in the world championships and winning our group. Now comes the question of what to do when it comes to the team. There are two things that would help in the future. The first would be a database for Untied States players to post their players ORs and stats and we could keep the database year round so we don't have to do as much scouting. I am not a numbers guy so I am not sure if I should be the one to do this. The second option is of course looking for new players. There are many aging stars who sadly can no longer player at the highest level and thus will have to be let off the team such as Jackson Morrell. Below will be what I am looking for when it comes to players and ORs.

Overall team: For right now any player above 2000 OR has a decent shot at making the team as a bench player. To be a starter the player would need to be above 2200 OR but I would prefer being at least above 2300 to get a decent spot on the team.

Goalies: For right now we are set with Clinton as our starter and we have a solid backup. Any good goalie is welcome however to try.

Defensemen: The top eight defensemen all have defense stats above 800. Anything below that will be 5th liner status(emergency injury). The good thing is that all 8 top defensemen are under the age of 30 and only one is going to be 30 next season which means for right now the D Corps of the USA will be pretty strong for one to three years. However I am always looking to improve so any defensemen found who can replace one of the top 8 would be great. Secondary stats will depend on a one by one basis

Forwards: This is the biggest concern of mine. Right now our forwards in the first and second line are pretty set and they are all high level players. Its the bottom six that will be open for battle. Any Offensive player(winger or center) can win a spot on this team. Any player above 700 Off will be looked at but of course I want higher. In order to be a starter the player would need OFF stat of 800 or so plus good secondary stats. The biggest position open right now is the fourth line center spot.

The CL and age, exp will be looked at in a one on one basis. I will be looking to employ 3-5 managers who can act as scouts and help me to search all the foreign leagues to find the top players. The other managers have done a great job of finding and grooming the best players of the USA. Kejoh99, Capsaicin, and Cory Martin have done a great job in building teams and finding elite tier players. But I am certain there is at least one or two gems out there who can play on this team as a starter. Once a player is found the manager can then send me their stats so I can compare them to the current lineup and add them. If you cannot scout them then send me the name, team, and league and I will scout them. This is a big sacrifice but one I am hoping some managers can make. I understand if you have your own scouting needs or are already scouting for another manager. I just want to make the USA senior team better so we can be in the top division.

It's much simpler to scout using transfer histories for players that ended up on foreign teams. Every player on a foreign had to play for an American team at some point. You need to look at the transfer histories for teams that have folded in the past to catch all of them. To do this, you have to look at the transfer histories of all the dead teams from all previous seasons from all leagues. Even noname teams have in the past changed into nonames teams from teams that might have been good in the past. You can use the teams' transfer histories or the leagues' transfer histories.

The only players you would miss using this strategy would be players that were terminated (though they are unlikely to be of interested to the NT, especially since many players from the U18 and U20 aren't close to good enough for the senior team).

The other problem is teams that never made it into a league that currently has teams (for example, division IV leagues, and III.14-III.16). When leagues are dropped, you cannot see the teams in those leagues from the past (at least, not easily; you can view the leagues by changing the link in the URL bar manually). Even so, I've rarely found a player from a division IV league that is even worth consideration as a longshot to make a the U18 team. I wouldn't worry about teams that never made it above division IV.

With that said, Cory Martin did do a great job finding good players for the senior team. If you wanted to undertake a thorough double check, the above is an efficient way of going about it, though it would still be very time consuming, especially for a senior team in an older sport like hockey.

Thanks. My focus was primarily on the top division for every country (and the second for the bigger countries). I figured if a player wasn't on one of those teams who were likely to have the best facilities, they wouldn't be able to make the cut. That being said, there are a few teams with amazing facilities hiding in the lower levels who may have blown up their team and purchased young studs to groom from the beginning, so I may have missed some guys. However I would have guessed you would have picked any of them up with your scouting. We've probably got a good handle on the potential players, but without a database, it's impossible to tell.

We have a database. Its called the Capsaicin 2000 and has information on so many American born players. I bet he has the stats of every single American born player.

My wildest dream is a player with 1000 Off 500 Pas and Tec 300 exp an is named Steve Rodgers. Short of that happening or any other gem type players we willmost likely go with the current roster. Using the list of players Capsaicin gave me, Cory Martin's experiance, my brazen coaching style and a little luck let's hope with a season of training we can build a better roster.

So the lineup that will be playing the home and away series games vs Canada will most likely be the lineup used in the world championships. The top three lines are set unless a player has a sudden jump in skills and earns a spot on the team. The fourth line will be an ever changing mix of players as guys will be fighting for playing time. The hope and desire is that someone will step up and win the spot. This is what will be happening throughout the friendlies.

I forgot to mention something that Cory Martin has pointed out. I said that the top three lines of players are set but that does not mean that the top three lines will be playing all the friendlies. In order to build chemistry in the team I will be changing lines and mixing and matching players in order to build chemistry so that everyone on the team has it built up in time for world championships and any depth player can play in case of injury. Hopefully this will mean the "5th" line can play for the fourth line if need be.

So I have a scouting mission that I would need help with. Would any managers be willing to help me out? I can repay any manager who agrees to help with a gift of 50 credits

I'm game. My scouting list has been empty for months now.

Depending on who you're looking to have scouted I may already have it done. Otherwise all I'm doing is scouting the top league in the US right now, so I've got spots open.

Put me on the list, no credits required. Just let me know.

Cool I will be messaging people today one on one with assignments

The friendly today ended with a 1-0 win for the Untied States vs Canada. Rodger Baker scored the only goal of the game and Kevin Clinton posted a shutout stopping all 34 shots faced by the Canadian team. After this game I will begin the process of rotating players. This means the top line players of the USA will not be playing the next 5 to 8 games and the second line will be used sparingly as I try to work 5th line worthy players and maybe sixth line players into the lineup to see if anyone can stand out. Most likely this means that the Untied States will lose the next 5 to 8 games but then they are friendlies so now is the time for this. I also plan to practice some tactics so you will be seeing some interesting players and combos. Finally happy 4th of July and stay safe out there.